Cool Pics

Saturn and it's moon, via MSNBC

Workout of the day

Dumbbell Row

Okay, there are many methods for doing this. You can assume the push-up position or place your knee and adjacent arm on a bench. Either way, begin to lift the dumbbell by bending your elbows and moving yours shoulder and don't use your torso.

Workout of the day

Goblet Squat

Grab the end of a dumbbell with both hands and place it in front your chest. (It should be vertical.) Feet should be slightly beyond should length. Keep back arched. Now squat! Push your hip back and bend you're knees. If it's hard, try doing without a dumbbell. It's one of those awesome burns that feels satisfying (and sore.)

Bashing His Majesty

This past Christmas was spent with the relatives. Usually, there was karaoke, beer, food, and political talks on Cambodia. I didn't listen in much, mostly because I've heard them all and much of it was unverifiable. Nonetheless, I did catch a few words about His Majesty, Norodom Sihamoni. It wasn't good words.

Now before anyone state it, I'm not condemning negative talks against a Monarchy. I am very opposed to Thai laws restricting criticism of Royalties because it prevents any true freedom of speech. However, I will criticise nay-sayers of His Majesty. Not because I don't want people disrespecting the king, but rather because people refuse to disrespect the actual problem - the prime minister. This is Cambodia's own version of censorship. Since criticising the PM is dangerous, people deflect it on His Majesty. They say that HM lets so and so happens and isn't doing his job. Uh, hello? HM is just a figure head. The real power is with the PM, but no one outside of Cambodia has the guts to say it. (Surely, plenty of Khmer journalist based in the U.S. do, but I find their integrity rather faulty and often rather racist.)

So why are people criticising the king? Well duh he's an easy target. Sihamoni doesn't have the level of respect from Cambodian that His Majesty Bhumibol Adulyadej has in Thailand. Sihamoni isn't feared like Hun Sen, so whenever Hun Sen's cabinet screws up, it's much easier to mitigate the blame on the King (even easier to mitigate on a lower authority, of course.) So, what's the problem? You've got to be real. Put the blame where it belongs, not on the easiest target (that's called scapegoating don'tcha know.)

Congee

In Khmer babar (no the elephant of course).

Depending on serving, us from 2 to 4 cups of white rice. Put double or more amount of water, depending on how liquid you want it.

You can put a multitude of yummy things in congee. I put chicken, parsley, chives, pepper, and salted soybeans. Also shredded pork is good too.

I can't think of an east Asian nation that doesn't serve conjee. I remember getting it even on EVA Air on my way to Taiwan. (I didn't enjoy it because I was afraid of dying on the whole trip there.) Some of the best conjee I've eaten are Korean and Cambodian conjee which sometimes use ingredients that would look weird in western food.

My Hometown.

Riverside City, Riverside County, California

Miene Freunden auf UCR, haben keine Aufwertung für Riverside. Ich glaube dass, wir viele schöne Plätze haben.

Father Forces "Gay" Son to Have Sex With a Prositute

Via Fridae:

"A local court says there is enough evidence against the father for him to stand
trial for the rape of his son.
Fearing that his 14-year-old son is gay, a
Rockhampton man thought that sex with a woman would "straighten" him out.
According to the Rockhampton Morning Bulletin on Wednesday, the father
allegedly phoned a prostitute during a family barbecue around Christmas time in
2007 and arranged to meet her at a local motel.
The unnamed man drove his
son to the motel and waited outside the room after demanding to see a used
condom as proof that the boy and the prostitute had sex."

Oh great. Homophobia at work again, and this time it's goes all out. There is so many thing wrong with this. Firstly, the father is a negligent arsehole. He could have risked giving his son so many diseases. Secondly, straight sex cannot "cure" homosexual attraction. Which brings me to the next point that he should have no fear of teh gehs. They's people too, and often very good moral people. Than again, I forget that keeping the status quo is far more important than human life and dignity.

Parent's hometown

The rural villages of Battambong Province.

Meine Elterns kommen auf Battambong. Man kann viele Auckerland da finden. Als ich 17 Jahre alt war, hatte ich zu dem Dorf meiner Mutti gegagen.

Scene from Ramakien and random stuff

Okay, I'm not familiar with my Ramayana but I'm fairly sure that this is a Yak in disguised to lure Phra Ram. Okay people always say that Khmer and Thai lakorn are the same. It is true that both theatre are related with the Khmer version being the predecessor. However, there fundamental differences in the music and acting and plot all together.

Oh, I get more death threats from a certian crazy Canadian but he didn't figure I'd put my system on moderation. Which brings me to another note. I welcome most comments on here (even condencending ones) but I don't tolerate this type of insanity.

Various Tai performances

Tai Lue: Northern Thailand, Xishuangbanna Dai Automnous Prefecture

Lao: Laos, Issan- Thailand

Tai Dam: Thailand, Laos, Vietnam

Thai: Thailand

Shan: Thailand, Shan State- Burma, Yunan- China

I get death threat

So If you ever wonder what happened to me, look up this guy.

English =/= Romance Language

I don't know how this myth keeps propagating itself. We have linguist facts and historical records to show that it's Germanic. Similarities to a Romance language are largely due to

1. The fact that English -> Germanic ->Indo-European just as all Romance languages are Indo-European.
2. English borrowed from visitors/invaders/natives where ever their speakers go.
3. 300 years of Norman control of the region tends to change the language.

I hear some claim that English is a Romance ( A.K.A. Latin) language because it has a lot of Latin words. SO? Plenty of other languages have Latin words too! Due to contact!

Based on that reasoning, English should also be

• Sino-Tibetan: Chow = 炒 from Cantonese, Ketchup = 茄汁 from Cantonese or Amoy, Tea = 茶 from Amoy, and so on.
• Austronesian: (Malay and related languages): Amok = amuk, Bamboo = bambu, Paddy = padi, junk, gong, and so on. (Polynesian): Taboo, Lei, Wiki, and so on. (Filipino languages): Boondocks, Yo-Yo.
• Native American: Muskrat, Moose, Opossum, Hickory, Skunk, and so on.
• African: Tango, Aardvark, Zebra, Zombie, and so on.
• Semitic: (Hebrew): Abacus, Sack, Golem, Macabre and so on. (Arabic): Algebra, Algorithm, Arsenal, Alcohol, Candy, Coffee, and so on.
• Celtic: Bunny, Craig, Spunk, Slogan, Bog, Bard, Drum, and so on.
• Greek: So many. Photo for example.
• Indo-Iranian: (Sanskrit languages): Avatar, Atoll, Jungle, Thug, Shampoo, and so on. (Iranian) as, Cash, Afreet, Kabob, and so on.

There is even more then this. So yeah, saying English is Romance based on Lexicon comparison would be absurd because then it would be every other languages too.

Music

I love Greek music, and Greek singers. They are so good looking.

Dance - Bali

This here be a dance from the island of Bali, located in the nation of Indonesia. Bali and parts of the island of Lombok are inhabited by the Balinese who are ethnically and linguistically related to the Javanese which is the dominate ethnic group. Unlike the Javanese, the Balinese are prodominately Hindu, and their languages is an archaic form of modern Javanese.

Austro-Asiatic people

The Austro-Asiatic people is a ethno-linguistic people in Southeast Asia. Linguistically, there are differences on how the language families should be divided. Two recent proposal for the classification of the language families comes from Gérard Diffloth and Ilia Peiros. The majority of Austro-Asiatic speakers are minority hill tribes ranging across east India, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Thailand, Laos, Vietnam, China, Cambodia, and peninsular Malaysia. Only Mon, Khmer, and Vietnamese has ever had long recorded histories and kingdoms. Only Khmer and Vietnamese today remain an official language. (Picture of Palaung girls in Northern Thailand.)

Culturally, the different linguistic groups are quite diverse. Both Mon and Khmer have heavy Indian influences as shown in the borrowing of Pali words, Theravada Buddhism, Architecture, and Clothing. Vietnamese on the other hand, had heavy Sinicization due to many years of domination by various Chinese Dynasty. As a result, Vietnamese draw from Mahayana Buddhism, have many cognates with Chinese (in particular Cantonese), and other Chinese elements. Despite this, the majority of Austro-Asiatic speakers still retain some indigenous cultural aspects such as different kinship structure and a tendency towards animism. (Pictures of Khmu people in Northern Laos.)

The Khmer people established their fist kingdom as Funan as recorded by Chinese records. This later would be over thrown by Chenla and later Angkor. Angkor would later dominate large portions of modern day Vietnam, Thailand, Cambodia, and Laos. The Angkor dynasty would end due to internal changes as well as attacks from the newly formed Tai kingdom of Ayutthaya. This leads to a now Theravada kingdom and into a "dark age." Eventually, the Khmer people would go under French protectorate as a result of colonization. A few decades after independence from the French, they would face a civil war and a genocide at the hands of the Khmer Rouge. In modern times, Khmer people are the majority of the country of Cambodia but also have significant presence in Thailand and Vietnam. Khmers practice Theravada Buddhism, imported from Sri Lanka, with elements of Hinduism and animism. They use the Khmer script, a member of the Bhramic script family. Thai and Lao Scripts are descendants of Khmer script. Khmer legends claims that they are descendants of an Indian prince and a Naga princess. (Picture of a Khmer Royal Ballet dancer as Sovan Macha the mermaid who attempt to seduce Hanuman from the epic Ramayana.)



The Viets are regarded to be one of the Yue peoples found in Chinese historical records. They would first go under domination from the Han dynasty, with subsequent Independence and revolts. They are again dominated by the Sui and Tang receiving independence in the Ngô Dynasty. By then end of the Trần Dynasty and Hồ Dynasty, they are again overtaken by the Ming. Eventually, they received independence again until the collapse of Nguyễn Dynasty under French occupation. Subsequently they go through independence and then the Vietnam War. They unify under the Communist regime but thaw towards free market economic system in the end of the 20th century. Viets are in the southern most part of China, they are the majority of Vietnam and have presence in Cambodia, and Laos. There is also a large number of Vietnamese in the United States due to the Vietnam War. Viets practice Mahayana Buddhism, Confucianism, Taoism, Cao Dao, and Catholicism. Vietnamese employs Quốc Ngữ which comprises of Latin characters to suit their phonology and was developed by missionaries. Historically, Vietnamese used Classical Chinese and Chữ Nôm which is a derivative of Chinese. Vietnamese legends claim that they are children of the Red Dragon. (Picture of a Viet woman in a Modern áo dài. Historically, female dress were similar to male dress. After French influences, female dress became more tight fitting to reveal the body. It is derived from the Manchu Qipao/Cheongsam from the Qing.)

The Mon people had a several kingdoms in what is now modern day Myanmar. Their script would be adapted by the Burmese as their script. After they fall to the Burmese they would be scattered into modern day Thailand and Myanmar. In modern time, they represents on of the ethnic groups in Myanmar seeking independence. Mon are Theravada Buddhist with elements of animism. Mon use the mon script, which is a member of the Bhramic family. Burmese, Shan, Dai, and Lana are derived from Mon script. (Picture of a Mon celebration. Note that the dress worn is similar to dress found throughout Southest Asia (continental and insular) due to Indian influences.)

Other Austro-Asiatic people include the Khmu, the Palaung, Orang Asli in Malaysia, Nicobar natives, Munda hill tribes, and numerous other small ethnic groups. Their cut lure varies greatly depending on environment and location. For the most part most of these groups lack their own writing system. They are also often politically marginalized. Religious affiliations vary from tribe to tribe. (Picture of Munda women.)




(Picture of Orang Asli women. Asli are the indigenous people of peninsular Malaysia. They are often grouped with other indigenous people in Sarawak and Sabah although linguistically those people are not related to the Asli.)

On a side note: Why can't I ever get pictures of men? Whenever you google or yahoo the names of the tribes, you get mostly women. Not that it's a bad thing but men are part of their culture too. XD

태평무(太平舞)

이 춤을 평화를 위해 헌신입니다. 그것은 제국 춤이다.

Chinchorro Mummies

The Chinchorro mummies are the remains of a civilization living in the dry desserts of the Andes. The people of this society showed respect to the dead by carefully opening the body to re-enforce it then decorate it with a mask, clothes, and painting. From a western perspective, some would view this as desecration. Methinks, however, that careful remodeling and preservation of the decease require a great deal of respect for that person. It's not like it's mandatory after all, the dessert could have mummified it either way but the Chinchorro seemed to believed that it eternalized the dead. Of course, this is just my own sophist thought on the matter. There is no way of knowing what went through the minds of the people as they did this other then what we can interpreted from the artifacts left behind. It would be difficult to rely on ethnographic interpretation because it is very likely that the ideologies and practices of the modern decedents have change. However we know some aspects were preserved and passed on. Even today we see locals use the same practices of civilization like Moche and Inca. And at the risk of sounding like all my other professors, more study need to be made soon before the cultures disappear.

Music, again

And who says that the east is "trapped" in tradition. The truth is the east holds on to tradition while at the same time progress in to modernity. It's not a hard concept.

Music

You know, nowadays you can find most Thai/Khmer/Lao DVDs on Youtube because the copyright laws in those country suck ass. I often wonder if the posters ever think that by posting these MVs online would be hurting the production companies which explain why some many production companies go under. But then I think, the majority of Thai/Khmer/Lao folks don't access the Internet often so they'd still buy the DVDs anyways.

Things that need fixin'

I took these letters from PZ Myers and Ed Brayton because I felt that they convey a good sense of how fundy-zealots are threatening the institutions that are valued by the American society and how they marginalize those who disagree with them. The next time some says there are not atheist in foxholes, I'll tell them to open their eyes.

I was always a mediocre student, especially in high school. I never really knew what I wanted to do, and nothing seemed to excite me. This changed in my senior year, when a creationist visited my biology class.

On that fateful day, all the science students were herded into the school auditorium, where we listened to a long and richly illustrated lecture describing literal creationism. We were informed that in an effort to "balance" our education, we would soon hear an equally long lecture on evolution. This, like many things I heard that day, turned out to be false. The evolution lecture never materialized. Remarkably, I graduated from senior biology having learned only about creationism.

School had finally gotten my full attention. I wanted to know what we were missing, and why. For the first time in my life, I willingly (eagerly even) picked up my textbook and studiously read it. With growing interest, I realized that evolution made an awful lot of sense, and that I was being hoodwinked by my biology class.

It's hard to overestimate the appeal of rebelling against the system to a teenaged boy, and that day marked the beginning of my path to a career in evolutionary biology. We learned other things in science class that year, too--for example, that all actions have an opposite reaction. For at least one sulky teenager in the small town of Owen Sound, Ontario, it took a creationist to make him into an evolutionary biologist.

The second letter relates to the military:

I am a United States Army Captain. On a spring day at the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York several years ago, I took a solemn oath to support and defend the United States Constitution against all enemies foreign and domestic as an officer in the United States Army. I took a legally altered oath which omitted the words "So Help Me G-d." When I submitted my first signed copy, with those words neatly crossed out and initialed, I was informed that it was not valid. When threatened with the prospect of not graduating and being refused a Commission, I stood by my refusal to sign the Oath as it read. I could not in good conscience do so because I was deeply disturbed by fusion of religion and military service. I could not reconcile the suspicion that the Oath itself was establishing religion in a way which contradicted the spirit of the Constitution with the intensity of my commitment to defend same. I believed, and still believe, that my personal metaphysical experience of the universe must be separate from my role as a military professional. In the passing years, I have come to the unsettling conclusion that the sentiment in the Oath which so disturbed me is a practical reality in my United States Army.
Based on my alteration of The Oath, you may be tempted to label me "non-religious." I find this odd, because religion has broadly influenced my life and values. I was born into a mixed Jewish and Catholic family. The family I belong to now is mixed Buddhist and Agnostic. I attended Catholic high school where I excelled in my religious studies. I was one of a literal fistful of non-Christian students voluntarily attending a religious institution, and I never once felt pressure to conform. In our mandatory religious classes we studied Buddhism, Hinduism, Confucianism, and Quaker, Mormon, Jewish, Protestant, Wiccan, and other religions and we were taught that mere "tolerance" was abhorrent and basic "acceptance" was the absolute minimum standard. I learned during my second semester as a Plebe (freshman) at West Point that even lowly tolerance is a privilege not to be bestowed on all Soldiers in the United States Army.

During my second year at the West Point, my Squad Leader for summer training expressed disapproval on numerous occasions with my being Jewish, and, during one mission, he grabbed my MRE (a military meal) as we sat down for lunch and handed me another. He ordered me to eat the pork chop and I reminded him that I refrain from pork for religious reasons. He told me that I could eat the pork or eat nothing. One of his peers, a female Jewish cadet, urged me to obey him and not to make him angry; I declined. The next day, my cadet Platoon Leader presented me with a written counseling statement detailing my signs of "anorexia" and a "troubling" refusal to eat which was detrimental to my health and indicative of "incapacity for leadership." I was filled with righteous indignation. I went through the Cadet and Commissioned Chain of Command and my rebuttal culminated with a conversation with the Active Duty Major in command of the summer training. When I explained the events in detail, he told me that my Cadet Chain of Command was right to be concerned, and spoke words I will never forget: "the Army is not in the business of catering to people like you." Those words have haunted me throughout my career as an Officer. They were the turning point for me--when I finally understood the message several of my leaders had been expressing to me all along: the Army has no place for people like me: dissidents who stray from the unofficially mandated military religion; conservative fundamentalist Christianity.

Throughout my service, I have been inundated by reminders of the tenacity of this "Army Religion". On a regular basis, I am confronted with being forced/coerced to partake in involuntary prayer. At change of command ceremonies, promotions, retirements, banquets, mandatory Officer/NCO call, the list goes on. What do I do when this happens? I see no reason why I should have to bow my head to participate in this involuntary prayer. But if I stand at attention, I am still showing that I am subject to religion in my professional duties. I have discovered that any other movements or fidgeting are viewed as disrespectful to those who wish to pray. Army leaders send the message out that prayer is voluntary, and that Soldiers do not have to participate. As a Platoon Leader serving in Iraq, my Squad Leaders and I were ordered to attend a mission briefing with the Battalion Command Team's security squad. The briefing concluded with a Soldier being ordered to lead the group in prayer. I was disturbed because I knew that there were Soldiers on this team who did not share the specific, sectarian Christian religious beliefs being expressed. I was standing at the edge of the formation, and chose to quietly walk away. I was later counseled by my Commander and informed that the Battalion Command Team had heard of the incident and recommended I be relieved from my duties as Platoon Leader. My Commander explained that, by not bowing my head in blatantly Christian prayer with the others, I was sending a message that I "want my Soldiers to die." These words penetrated my core. What leader can imagine a worse accusation? Who wouldn't doubt herself or himself when confronted with this message? The threat of being relieved was completely overshadowed and, again, I was an outsider, incapable of leadership because I refused this unconstitutional perversion of Christianity synonymous with the Command.Could I not, would I not be an effective combat ready officer/leader/warrior without first very publicly and repeatedly demonstrating my singular loyalty to Jesus Christ? Could I not lead brave military women and men into combat for my country without being an avowed fundamentalist Christian? I stopped practicing my own religion; I disassociated myself from Soldiers who were similarly persecuted; I lost hope.

Who can you talk to about something like this? Certainly not my Chain of Command- my immediate supervisor/rater and senior supervisor/rater had threatened to relieve me. Obviously my counseling statement wouldn't address mandatory prayer, but what did it matter what it said if both my rater and senior rater agreed I was "unfit" and there were no other Officers who I worked with or around? I later contacted the Equal Opportunity Office to make an official anonymous report about the noxious, compulsive Christian, command climate. Shockingly, the NCO I filed the report with wasted no time in contacting my Battalion Commander directly, in complete violation of the privacy regulations and guarantees of protective anonymity attendant to such hyper-sensitive filings. I later became a member of an Installation Inspector General Team and observed firsthand the impotent, incapacity of the IG to affect any meaningful change. The difference between lower enlisted Soldiers and myself is this: they suspect that they have nowhere to turn in order to escape this unbearable religious persecution--in contrast, as an officer, I do not suspect. I know.

Looking back over all my time in the Army and at the United States Military Academy at West Point, I know that there were so many good memories, so many wonderful opportunities, and so many outstanding leaders of character I met along the way. Yet, the time is painfully tainted for me by a long shadow of bitter religious persecution by zealously righteous Christians essentially universally extant throughout the United States Army command structure.What has most surprised me about this struggle is how utterly powerless I am as a Captain- a Command level Officer- to stand up for my rights and for the Constitution and Country I love. I am a great Soldier, a great leader, and a great person, and I am a victim. It is not comfortable to admit one is a victim; I believe that admitting it takes a certain type of personal strength. The first day I met my current military superior/rater, he was playing Christian gospel music in his office while he called me in to talk. Perhaps it was an innocent oversight on his part, or perhaps it is another hint of the sinister nature of the current "Army Religion". There is no safe way to find out. My experiences have shown that the inundation of invitations for fundamentalist Christian prayer and fellowship, "spiritual growth" and "moral development" that target fellow Soldiers tends to thinly mask an undeniable and comprehensive underlying propensity for aggression, hatred, and ambition to subjugate the United States Army to an official religion; fundamentalist Christianity. The result for the American military is a total destruction of esprit de corps, teamwork, morale, good order and discipline. The result for the fundamentalist Islamic enemies we fight is an immeasurable bonanza of emboldenment for their recruitment, propaganda and insurgency efforts to maim and kill our soldiers down range in Iraq and Afghanistan. I was there. I saw it. I lived it. I am still living it.

When Mikey Weinstein and the Military Religious Freedom Foundation describe this catastrophe of fundamentalist Christian usurpation of the command and control of our armed forces as a "national security threat of the gravest magnitude", they are precisely correct. It is injuring and killing our brave military members, specifically. It is desecrating the magnificent Constitution we swore an oath to, generally. And it is destroying our military's solidarity of purpose and ability to accomplish The Mission, completely.

A music video!

Because a Fundy made the grieve error of overgeneralizing a group of people as pure evil because of their lack of belief, I decided to post this video of Miao Culture from the PRC. It does have a flavor of propaganda to it (which I am not to keen about any country doing), but, in my usage, it's meant to show that a predominately non-religious nation can have a good cultural upbringing and a concept of plurality.

Wat Pho- An Artistic Critique

I think this is one of the beautiful sites of Thailand. I would also like to note the abstracted yet representational features of the reclining Buddha. Giving him a human image provides the viewer of the sense of the realness of the Buddha's teaching. Yet we note that some of the feature are not realist at all. Perhaps this is meant show that irrational nature of enlightenment.

I always like to apply western art concept with eastern ones. But I suppose that from a relative point of view it would be impossible since the true motives of the artist is different.

YUM! Larb!

Yummy stuff! The first time I tried this fine Lao-Thai cuisine, it was so exotic. Supprisingly, it doesn't exist in Khmer food despite being so close that region of Thailand where it's the specialty. You can find the recipe at this link! http://www.thaitable.com/Thai/recipes/Laab.htm

The Black Skull - A Window Into My Own Ignorance

If there was ever a display that represented the anthropology department at the University of California, Riverside, it is the replica of the Black Skull, a skull of a Paranthropus Aethiopicus, and a Macuahuitl (a large weapon used by Aztecs made of obsidian). When I finally got around to taking a biological anthro course, I was astound at the fact that the Hominidae family was so diverse. There were so many of us way back then in the Plioscene. I was also surprise to know that there was still much controversy about the origin of the genus Homo and the internal classification as a whole. The image of the Black Skull, a primitive fellow with a crest that, no doubt, looked foreign to modern Homo Sapiens, left such a great impression on me as a young scientist. Never in my education was I ever told before this the existence of such an array of proto-human. In fact I wasn't taught much at all. I did have a vague understanding of the formation of the Solar System, the geological history of the earth, and the evolution of life, but that was the gist of it. Understandably, it's only natural for general education to skim on details but I still felt cheated - more so by my teachers. Most of them didn't make the effort to inform me about such things. In fact only a biology teacher, a chem teacher, and a environmental science teacher every brought up evolution as a fact. Many of the others dodged the subject. One, another bio teacher, openly challenged the idea and even went as far as to show movies about 'intelligent design' being 'right.' So I grew up with an accurate depiction of the human evolution process. In fact, I could have sworn up to college, that the evolution of human lacked a lot of evidence, was a single transition from some primordial ape to modern human (with Neanderthals being a direct predecessor of Homo Sapien) and did NOT radiate. I guess there reason for this is easier to refute that image of evolution then it is to refute modern ones with more evidence. I went after all to a largely Christian high school that chastised me for being Buddhist (while other Buddhist chastised me for having an orthodox view of divinity) that was generally hostile to liberal, or scientific knowledge. It wasn't a lost for me as I eventually learned but I can't help pity the other student left behind.